El Camino College          Honors Astronomy  20           The Solar System  Course Outline          Spring 2012

Section 1058 meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2:00-3:25 in the Planetarium. 

Instructor:  Perry Hacking; Office Planetarium; (310) 660-3593 (x3245); Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 1:30-3:00; Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30 - 4:00. Although not an official office hour, you can often reach me on  Saturdays 1:30-2:30 in Physics 108 or my office- you can chance it or I suggest that you verify it with me in advance.  Email: phacking@elcamino.edu

Text: Astronomy Today, by Chaisson & McMillan, 6th edition or later. 

Tutor:  Tutor Information

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites, but you should be excited about astronomy and want to learn a lot about it!  Although this is a "non-mathematical" course arithmetic and algebra skills are assumed.  See Background Topics page for a review of what I think that you should know by the end of the first week of class.  There are some sample quiz questions there also.

Attendance: Attendance is MANDATORY to keep up (even the best students are very surprised  when they return after missing a class). We cover a lot of material every class.

Course Objectives and Student Learning Outcomes: In general, the course objective is for you to learn about our night sky, the motions of celestial bodies in it, the cause of the seasons on Earth, the history of astronomy, all of the major bodies in our solar system and important minor bodies and the theory of how our solar system formed and how physical evidence supports this theory.  The official course objectives and SLOs can be found at: Astronomy 20 Course Objectives.

Exams: A midterm and a final in-class exams will be given.  The exams will have true/false, fill-in-the-blank and essay questions. Some exams will include identifications and descriptions from slides. About 50% of the problems will be taken from the quizzes. THERE WILL BE NO MAKEUP EXAMS.

There will also be a take-home written exam that will be worth 50 points. 

Quizzes: 5-10 quizzes will be given worth a total of 100 points. These will cover only the previous week's material. The total of the quiz scores will count as much as a test score.

Homework: Homework assignments will be given for every chapter. They will will usually be worth 4 points per assignment. Due dates will be set for class days, and the assignment will be due at the beginning of class (turn it in on the front left corner of the desk when you arrive, do not wait for me to call for it).  No late homework sets will be allowed. If you are going to be late or not make it to class, then you will need to arrange to get the homework to me early.  There will be a total of 50 homework points.

Extra Credit – 40 points maximum for the semester. All extra credit is due May 19th.  See Extra Credit Instruction Sheet for further details.

Grading: Course grade is based on the exams, project, quizzes, and extra credit. I total all of your points at the end of the semester to determine your grade. The grade scale is as follows:

each exam    for the course

90 - 100 A     360 – 400 A

80 - 89 B       320 - 359 B

65 - 79 C       260 - 319 C

50 - 64 D       200 - 259 D

Students who withdraw after May 11th  will receive a letter grade based on the entire semester's requirements.

Honors Requirements - the principle differences between this course and the regular sections include the written take-home exam, some more homework, extra credit is more limited in the honors class, and we will cover the material in a bit more detail.

Preparation: This is a tough class. I expect at least 3 hours of studying per week from you.

Disabilities:  If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible..

Advice: The only stupid questions are the ones that you don't ask. Don't be concerned with what others think. If you don't understand something, ask questions. When you get lost in a lecture, raise your hand immediately. Asking questions is a sign of intelligence.

If I see that you are not asking questions, I will randomly select questions to ask YOU!

ASK QUESTIONS.

Classroom Manners. Please:

  1. Turn off all cell phones and pagers.  NO text-messaging during class.
  2. Don't Yawn.  It's very contagious.  Show respect for those around you.
  3. Don't arrive late. If you arrive late, find the nearest, easiest seat near the door and slip into it.
  4. Don't eat or bring food to class.  This includes gum.

Disabilities:  If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible..

Lectures Topic (Reading Assignment)

Week 1 The Sky  (Chap 1).  

Week 2 The scale of things, motions in the heavens (Chap 2)

Week 3& 4 Seasons, phases of the Moon, eclipses.(Chap 3.)

Week 5 History of Astronomy. Gravity, Newton's laws.  (Chap 4)

Week 6 Light. (Chap. 5).

Week 7 Light and Telescopes (Chap 6). Overview of the Solar system.

Week 8  General nature of Terrestrial Planets.  Mercury Chapters 8 & 9)

Week 9 Midterm.  Venus (Chapter 7)

Week 10 & 11 The Earth  and Moon (Chapter 10). 

Week 12 Mars (Chapter 11).

Week 13 Jupiter and its moons (Chapter 12).

Week 14 Saturn and its rings (Chapter 13).

Week 15 Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.  Asteroids and Comets.  (Chapters 14-15).

Week 16 Origin of the Solar System, Final.